OK, so far I've been ploughing through this without pause or comment, but the hideous LORD OF BIRDS shirt made me laugh so hard that I needed to step away to catch my breath, and I'll use the chance to drop a comment while I'm at it. I'm sorry to be laughing at poor Caranthir, but the way he's being pushed into (and through) these situations despite his best efforts to stay out of them is just too funny. From the outside, anyway! As usual, you combine elements of our real modern world with the fantastic so beautifully that the Republic of Tirion feels like a visit to a foreign country where some things are familiar and some things, for all the familiarity, are delightfully different. I also really love how this ties in with Caranthir's first life - addressing his emotional rawness and the inability to block out input that I remember so vividly from Another Man's Cage, for instance, and adding details like his daughters or the way he used to swim in Lake Helevorn (when it wasn't frozen, anyway). I'm looking forward to the chapters ahead. I do hope Amarië will perform street art in the corridor to Mandos at some point. >:D

PS: Don't tell him, but I think Caranthir accidentally did a great job of mentoring Orodreth on the carriage ride, simply by getting Eärwen to stop touching him and by shutting everybody up...

I realised that I never left a finishing comment after I read this to the end. It was a bittersweet delight. I continue to feel that Caranthir did a great job (as Mandos probably knew he would). You've made me feel (even more) sorry for Orodreth, too - against reason I find myself hoping that Caranthir will *not* forget to look back...

Thank you for another awesome visit to the Republic of Tirion!

I left this on AO3 as well, but since you are the grande dame of the SWG this feels like a more appropriate location for it.

I have never given more than half a thought to poor, beleaguered Orodreth and now you have set hooks in my heart! What a terrible, haunting gift to have, oh, ow. I was laughing along at this marvelous, prickly Caranthir, determined to believe himself unlovable and yet clearly well-loved, and was NOT expecting so complex or irresolvable a tangle of dreams and desires and needs. Fingon has a giant cock t-shirt (of course he does, and of course Maedhros tries to get rid of it by passing it to Caranthir as vacation wear)! Celeborn!! Oh, Celeborn. It's all so funny, and yet so poignant. Caranthir’s fences, Orodreth’s yearning. The moment in the carriage where Caranthir can't help himself from feeling -- and helping. That ending!! Oh, this is marvelous. I have to go away and have a little cry.